7 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES: The Timeless Knight
by Dan Bivens
Summary: What happens when Superman and Batman enter the 31st Century to help the Legion of Superheroes with the deadly return of a half and half supervillain? Read after THE SLEEPLESS KNIGHT & THE STRANGE KNIGHT under COMICS: BATMAN
1. Chapter 1

**THE TIMELESS KNIGHT**

Chapter 1

Having decided that Metropolis, as well as the rest of the Free World, had no immediate need for the Man of Steel at this time. Not to mention the implied probability that Lois Lane would stay asleep and, therefore, encounter no degree of danger that such as she seemed so constantly capable of bringing upon herself…

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

...Superman streaked out into the airlessness of space at speeds rapidly reaching near-light velocities.

Something supposedly not possible, according to Albert Einstein as well as the plethora of physicists and cosmologists who had come along after, through both the remainder of the 20th Century and, now, into the 21st.

But such a possibility existed according to Kryptonian scientists, such as Jor-El, Kal-El's biological father.

With a sudden inner sigh, while still concentrating upon rapidly reaching light-speed in space, normal not hyper at this particular point, Superman quietly considered, "To think. A planetary race who had, untold millennia earlier, sent spaceships out to explore and, possibly, colonize. Ships that, eventually, achieved hyper-space travel potentials in order to proceed out to vaster interstellar distances at seeming faster-than-light instead of close-to-light velocities.

"But because of strife-fraught faction-against-faction combative troubles across the crystalline surface of that near-frozen world orbiting a dying single sun, had forced my father, for one, to halt all such interstellar activities, until that fateful afternoon my Kryptonian parents secretively sent me away via a hyper-spatially traveling vessel…a true _star_-ship!…well, let's just say that such was most definitely an ironic turn of events.

"But one thing my father, as well as all true scientific types on Krypton at the time, had indeed long-since learned was that near-light was extremely possible."

Pouring on the graviton-creating/controlling super-flight capabilities, like he had learned to do many years earlier, Superman managed to hit a seemingly impossible speed of 78-percent the speed-of-light, some 145, 000-plus miles-per-second. Which, indeed, had the Einstein-predicted action of significantly increasing the mass of the Man of Steel in a geometric manner. Something that was most definitely not a feeling of comfort even for someone so seemingly godlike to mere Humans.

Until it was time to surpass space-time's simplistic normality.

"Uhnnnnnnn!"

Exerting so much mental control over graviton-production/distribution about a brawny, as well as truly invulnerable, body caused a significant sensation of agonized discomfort to sweep through his super-consciousness.

But, as Superman had done in the not-too-distant past, he pressed harder and harder, until…

SSSSSSSHHHHHHHssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh-Mmmppt!

…having, first, entered hyper-space and, then, halting his FTL-like velocities as soon as superhumanly possible in a short-sustained time period…

"Arrrgggggghhhhhhnnnnnn!"

Superman, managing not to crash headlong into the heart of a futuristic city, still landed hard enough to send himself skidding for several slightly-less-painful feet.

"Uhn..."

Before gradually rolling onto hands and knees prior to planting one red-booted foot so as to slowly stand, while shaking off the after-effects of a super-short hyper-space speed that had promptly allowed for the preplanned entrance into a drastically different Reality.

One that, according to Humans who firmly believed in linear time, would be considered as Earth's _Thirty_-First Century.

"Thank science you came, Superman," said a familiar leader-like voice, even as a recovered, fully finally!, Man of Steel stepped toward his trans-time teammates.

"What seems to be the trouble, Brainiac 5?"

Brainiac 5, the blonde-haired, green-skinned supercomputer-minded Coluan standing as understood leader of the future-reality group of super-powered individuals collectively called: Legion of Super-Heroes.

The primary multi-costumed membership being embodied by the perennial likes of: Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Triplicate Girl, Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, Element Lad, Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Star Boy, Invisible Kid, Ferro Lad, Karate Kid, Shadow Lass, Mon-El…

"He's back, Superman," said Braniac 5 with a suddenness that swiftly shook the Kryptonian's attention away from the assemblage of super-persons and back to whatever had forced the 12th-Level intelligence of B-5, as he was often so colloquially called, to initiate a seldom-used trans-time transmission, which was solely his invention...as was most everything else used by the Legion.

"Who?" hoarsely asked Superman, already afraid of the answer even as his super-muscular physicality tensed significantly with hands tightening into twin super-fists.

Swiftly stepping forward to promptly reply in B-5's stead, in a tone as tense and, simultaneously, tough as any Legionnaire, including the still-standing Man of Steel, was the Daxamite, Mon-El…

"Composite Superman is back! And, after brutally killing Bouncing Boy, is threatening all of 31st Century reality!"

END OF CHAPTER 1


	2. Chapter 2

**THE TIMELESS KNIGHT**

Chapter 2

Batman had endured this middle-of-the-night bat-and-mouse chase, across rooftops via acrobatic Bat-booted feet and Bat-belt obtained Batarang-and-line, for longer than he'd normally allow.

Truth was, he had been getting a bit bored or late.

It had been weeks since the last super-trouble of any given level had arisen, in the unlikely dual embodiment of both Dr. Hugo Strange, former psychiatre extraordinaire of Gotham's own Arkham Asylum, and the suddenly insane ex-psychiatric intern, Dr. Jonathan Crane, now known as Scarecrow. Who had, via Dr. Strange using singular mind control techniques, been turned from formerly meek mind into the exact opposite. Two threats that the Batman, with Superman's assistance, were swiftly stopped and, as expected in such situations, sent back to Arkham Asylum as equally-insane inmates.

Weeks of minor criminal activity that had no ready need of a Caped Crusader, yet had been Batman's sole source of nocturnal activity as a cowl-and-caped crimefighter.

Such was why, when the Dark Knight had arrived at a cat burglary-in-progress, he left his self-protected Batmobile parked. And avoided reaching for anything offensive inside a single one of the multitude of compartments making up the yellow Bat-belt worn snuggly about the well-muscled waist of this non-super-powered hero in blue-gray.

Curiously, he hadn't yet been able to fully identify the thief in shiny black leather currently crossing from gothic rooftop to gothic rooftop in some impossibly similar manner as the Batman's Batarang-and-line.

Still, judging from the indisputable fact that this fleeing black-garbed, in glistening leather, criminal had not so much as shot a handgun in his direction nor used any other super-criminal type weapon, Batman merely believed it to be a slightly better-than-average burglar.

Little could the Caped Crimefighter know that, even as he caught up to the criminal whose moves mirrored much of his own, save for the stealing of jewelry and stolen-from-safe cash being totted in some sort of equally black, but not leather, backpack…

"You!" exclaimed the Cowled One with quick recognition, after using some curiously small semi-circular objects whose sole design was to break the running tread contact between booted feet and rooftop surfaces and, as such, cause said criminal to fall flat and hard on their rear. "But I thought you quit after…!"

"I did!" grunted what turned out to be an exceptionally beautiful, assuredly unforgettable, lady beneath the formfitting outfit of glistening black leather, black booted, black masked design, which she swiftly pulled off a black-haired head with one curiously claw-gloved hand. "But, really, Batman, how long did you expect someone like me to play the role of a 'good little girl'? You should've known me better than that, Dark Knight."

"Yes, perhaps I should," softly said the Batman even as his half-exposed, beneath the impermeable indigo cowl, square-jawed countenance formed a decidedly pleased half-smile, "Selina Kyle."

Gradually drawn together by an excitement essentially sexual in basic nature, although never completely acted upon, the Batman and the Catwoman were very close to a kiss.

When…

"Sorry to bother you, Batman," said an all-to-familiar somniferous voice, even as it gradually landed directly to the Dark Knight's Bat-caped backside, "but I need your help."

No sooner had the sexual tension of this little Hallmark moment been obliterated, than Catwoman tugged her black mask back over her dark-haired, dark-eyed head while simultaneously snatching up a temporarily lowered-to-the rooftop backpack of misbegotten booty…

"Maybe another night, Bats. See ya!"

…than Catwoman utilized her signature black whip to, in essence, swing-jump onto yet another Gotham City high-rise rooftop before, faster than expected, disappearing into the moonless midnight.

"Thanks, Kal-El," grumbled the blue-gray costumed crimefighter sarcastically with narrowed-within-cowl eyes locked onto those true blues of the Last Son of Krypton. "What's wrong…Lois in trouble again?"

Slowly shaking his square-jawed, spit-curled head, Superman stepped considerably closer while seriously saying, "It would appear an enemy is causing super-trouble for some, uh, friends of mine."

His always-analytical billionaire mind beneath the cowl was quick to do its deductive dance, as the suddenly sneering Dark Knight knowingly said, "Composite Superman."

Nodding deeply, Superman gently placed a hand on the cape-covered, protectively padded, beneath gray surface, Bat-suit, then partially explained, "I'm afraid, after taking you back to your Batmobile, you'll have to trust me to take it and you…someplace strange."

"Someplace strange?" said Batman in a smugly rhetorical tone and half-affectation. "Normally, I'd say we were standing there already, but…"

Meanwhile, within the daytime super-city of the 31st Century time-reality, a very colorfully costumed, as varied as their individualized super-powers, Legion of Super-Heroes were streaking through the self-same skies, via Brainiac-5's flight rings. Save for Mon-El, whose Daxamite capability to produce and direct gravitons for self-flight made him more like Superman. All swiftly strike as a super-team supreme.

"If not for my desire to be amused by such as you," said the literally half-Superman/half-Batman, with exposed skin as green as that of Brainiac-5's Coluan coloring. "I would call upon a number of 'stolen' super-powers, running the entire range of you greatly beloved Legionnaires, to have utterly destroyed you all! Instead…I shall toy with you. Especially since it seems Superman has, apparently, abandoned you following the laughable, to me, demise of that self-inflating fool called…Bouncing Boy!"

"Shut the hell up!" screamed an enraged Lightning Lad as he, as per normal for his electrically volatile nature, unleashed huge lightning bolts with the concentrated force of billions of bombs being sent with super-precision. Sent onto a single, specific point not one single centimeter bigger than the bi-symbol christened muscular chest.

All while all their thoughts swiftly saw how Chuck Taine, Bouncing Boy…he of the seemingly useless super-ability to essentially inflate his physical Self!…had been obliterated before Brainiac 5's trans-time transmission into Superman's Time-Reality.

As with a seemingly endless number of previous power-bolts from the hovering via flight ring super-hero hailing from an agrarian planet called Winath, where he was one of many electrically-endowed humanoids named Garth Ranzz, such had very little effect, if that on the half-and-half super-villain.

Lightning Lad, like Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy, and Saturn Girl…not to mention the late-and-lamented Bouncing Boy killed earlier!…was one of the original core members of the Legion of Super-Heroes that was now home to so many super-powered members. Some by birth on Earth-like planets, others through accidental actions. All of whom was now part and parcel to periodically patrol throughout United Planet's space-boundaries via Legionnaire starships.

Even as Mon-El took the brunt of the super-battle to Composite Superman, being the only such super-strong/invulnerable superhero in this time-reality, save for whenever Superman pays a visit…

"Uhnnnnn!"

…while Star Boy, swooping in swift flight ring spirals about their under siege half-Superman/half-Batman nemesis, exerts his power specific super-ability to significantly increase the mass of anything, inanimate object or person, to, at the very least, manage to mass-confuse Composite Superman for the span of, perhaps, eight-to-ten seconds. Before the half-and-half super-villain countered with the self-same mass-controlling abilities combined with Lightning Lad's and Saturn Girl's, who managed to mangle the mind as well as the unprotected physicality of Star Boy…

"Eeeeeiiiiiii!"

Meanwhile, just then passing through the unseen something separating one reality from another…

SSSSSSSHHHHHHHssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh-Mmmppt! Mmmppt!

Superman, struggling to desperately hang onto the nearly three-ton Batmobile wherein the Batman, sealed into the self-protected super-car, while wearing a special Bat-breather covering the nose area and exposed face, strained to maintain graviton-producing/directing capabilities a little longer.

"Come on, Kal-El," Superman said to himself, super-teeth clenched tightly enough to shatter same in normal non-invulnerable mortals, as his handsome square-jawed features had become a grimaced mask of super-will. "Just…sit it…down…nice and…easy!"

Just when it seemed as though the Man of Steel was about to allow the bat-like vehicle to crash hard enough to potentially damage the seemingly indestructible creation of billionaire Bruce Wayne/Batman…

"Uhnn!"

No sooner was it clear to the Cowled One that the Batmobile has, basically, landed, than he unsealed same from within while removing his Bat-breather before leaping headlong into the light of day on a 31st Century Earth.

"Amazing," muttered the man within the cowl-and-cape as he took in, at a single glance, the marvelous magnificence of a super-city unlike anything even the founding fathers of Gotham City could conceive. Then, upon hearing the groans of his crimefighting colleague…

"Superman! Are you all right?"

"Yes," the man in blue-red said, even as he slowly stood, as if doing so might somehow manage to downplay the palpable pain in the broad of his back and the dense musculature of his legs. "It's just…that's the first time I actually brought something like the Batmobile with me. It was…a lot more of a strain than I thought it'd be."

"Good," Batman said in a seemingly passionless fashion, "because if someone like you and this Legion of Super-Heroes need my help…well, let's just say you've got to suck it up, my super-friend. Or else there's absolutely no chance in stopping Composite Superman!"

"Understood," said Superman after finally exerting his super-will to the point where pain was no longer a lingering issue. "All right…I'll fly above the Batmobile and lead you to where the Legionnaires and Composite Superman are currently embattled. The in-ear communications device will establish and hold the link so I can basically talk you in."

"Ready when you are, Kal-El," said the Batman, making certain his in-cowl communications contrivance was also fully functional before leaping inside the cockpit of his Batmobile once more. "Lead the way!"

Lightly lifting off, Superman, seconds later, super-flew a few hundred feet higher than the turbo-engine, flame-spewing Batmobile made its way, in a more roundabout manner, through seldom-used streets, save for citizens to walk along whenever their super-city was not under such sustained attacks, in the self-same general direction.

"Am I coming in, okay, Batman?" asked the streaking along, at ground-speed equivalents, Man of Steel, testing the essential electronic link between the two.

"Five-by-five, Superman," said the Dark Knight in prompt reply, his Bat-gloved hands expertly handling the Batmobile's wheel while Bat-booted feet expertly alternated between brake and accelerator in order to keep pace with the Last Son of Krypton flying overhead. "Now…you do realize that we're not going to be able to take advantage of Composite Superman's lead-allergy right away. He'll be expecting it this time. Besides, we have to make certain not to unnecessarily expose Mon-El to the lead. No need in endangering the Daxamite super-man's life."

"Understood," said Superman by way of an electronically transmitted reply, while swiftly zipping in and around the buildings of unbelievably tall architecture, even as Batman expertly sent his turbo-engine, 0-to-100 in three seconds, Batmobile in much the same manner along the streets themselves. "For the time being, let's just hope having you here will help with the Element-of-Surprise factor and give us just enough of a pause to set him up for an eventual fall."

"Not before I get tossed about like the non-super hero that I am I'll wager," grumbled the Batman barely loud enough to be transmitted into the Man of Steel's in-ear device, which, of course, such as he didn't need since his super-hearing would've done just as well.

All that the World's Finest, in their time-reality, could conceivably believe would swiftly greet their eyes in the microseconds to come was, hopefully, some semblance of survival by all superheroes set against a villain as powerful as the Legionnaires, Superman, and even the Dark Knight combined.

"Here goes nothing…!"

END OF CHAPTER 3


	3. Chapter 3

**THE TIMELESS KNIGHT**

Chapter 3/Conclusion

First and foremost, Superman swooped in at sub-Mach speeds upon the super-powered ruckus occurring in yet another downtown territory comprising the centermost section of an indescribably large cosmopolitan super-city of the 31st Century. Which, in the thousand years prior in this particular time-reality, would've invariably been, although a lot less in sheer size, a much more modest Metropolis.

Even though, in this reality, there had been no Superman, even though there had, in fact, been a completely Human Clark Kent partnered, at the Daily Planet newspaper, with a still lovely Lois Lane. Neither ever becoming romantically enamored with one another in any way, shape, or proverbial form.

Strange how such simplistic alterations would've inevitably led to other superhuman crimefighters that invariably included, from a far-flung planet called Daxamite, which, although home to an exceptionally xenophobic super-scientific species, nonetheless allowed for a few brave individuals to eventually leave their beloved world and its sole sun that, like Krypton in Superman's reality, was a bloated, aged, red giant called Valor.

Therefore, once Lar Gand arrived, via hyper-space travelling sub-sized starship, on Earth whereupon, under a middle-aged yellowish star called Sol, he took up the task of being a super-man who'd named himself Mon-El. Born of some race-memory retrieved narrative involving a heroic protagonist of a similar-sounding personage basically believed to be nothing more than a morality tale for small Daxamite children.

Still, two super-men were always a lot better than a single such super-powered person…most especially against such as Composite Superman who could always triple his multi-powered prerogative, thanks solely to Triplicate Girl's perfectly counterfeited tri-duplication abilities.

Triplicate Girl, real-name Luornu Durgo, from the planet Cargg that orbits, oddly enough, a trinary star system, sprang forth from a race whom, at some point during the latter part of evolutionary development, had inevitably emerged with the distinct species-specific power to quite literally triplicate themselves. She also had the honor of being the very first non-founding member to join the just-starting-to-grow Legion of Super-Heroes.

"All right, now," shouted the flight ring hovering Brainiac-5 even as the Man of Steel streaked straight into the frantic fray, "Superman's back! It's time to tie Composite Superman up so our surprise hero can proceed with the plan!"

Though the half-and-half super-villain, all three of them, allowed his super-hearing to zero in on B-5's shouted instructions, his super-eyes spied Superman in a super-dive directly at his currently landing half-Superman/half-Batman green-skinned Self, done in order to trick the mostly soaring around via flight rings, save for Mon-El, Legionnaires into landing as well.

Then he could conquer the entirety of such superheroes headquartered on Earth in his time-reality of the 31st Century…along with the sudden super-strong stopping power brought against the Last Son of Krypton.

"Did you get your second wind, Superman?" super-shouted Composite Superman so loudly that even essentially unbreakable building windows threatened to shatter.

Something that, in this futuristic super-city's scientifically perfect reality, would have required the close-quartered explosion of a suitcase-sized device with a destructive potential set to nuclear-level.

As expected, the half-and-half super-villain split himself into three, two of which worried with Superman and Mon-El, while the third took to the sky once again in order to draw in the flight-ring wearing Legionnaires that were not Kryptonian or Daxamite.

"Let's take this freak out!" shouted an enraged, as well as outraged, Lightning Lad sending brilliant bolts, each electrically charged with at least a million volts, into the bi-symbol chest of Composite Superman, while his lunatic laughter rolled forth like thunder as his invulnerability easily absorbed it all. "Saturn Girl! Now!"

Before the half-Superman/half-Batman villain could hover-spin around, Saturn Girl unleashed perhaps the greatest concentrated transmission of telepathic power ever endeavored by the blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty born on Titan. It would either work perfectly and, at the very least, scramble the surface consciousness of the Composite Superman or…

"Gyyyaaahhh!"

"It's working, Saturn Girl!" yelled their leader, Brainiac-5, from hovering above the airborne assault against such an incredibly powerful super-villain. "Keep it up!"

"I'm," started a strained Saturn Girl as her fair-skinned face screwed itself into a mask of super-intense concentration reaching far beyond her wildest expectations, "…trying…but…can't…hold out…long…!"

"Now!"

Heeding their green-skinned leader's uncharacteristic shout, a lot louder than normal for the 12th-Level blonde-haired Coluan ultra-genius…

The totality of flight-ring flying Legionnaires swiftly took the fight straight to the still psychically assaulted Composite Superman, their person-specific super-powers utilized in unison as a single entity, just as they had been tentatively trained from the very instant each swore their allegiance to the Legion of Super-Heroes and, indirectly, to the United Planets.

Colossal Boy swiftly increased his size to some two hundred meters, with previously ordinary strength significantly enhanced accordingly, and proceeded in slamming one huge hand hard onto Composite Superman, who easily shrugged it off Mon-El like invulnerability combined with limitless super-strength, while the hovering Saturn Girl's super-psionic power remained tightly concentrated onto the still struggling super-mind within the half-and-half super-villain…

…even as his other two tripled personages continued countering the super-strong strikes made by both the Man of Steel and the Daxamite in Red…

…while Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, Star Boy, and Sun Boy jointly jockeyed closer to their hovering half-Superman/half-Batman, sending extremely destructive bolts of lightning along with magnetically-controlled blast-waves and mass manipulative power amidst nova-level super-heat streamers sent against the lone, one out of three, Composite Superman…

…even as Sensor Girl, one of the newer recruits, exerted her singular capability to create realistic illusions, carefully confining such to only the mind of Composite Superman…

…even as Saturn Girl, no longer able to maintain a telepathic attack, psionically pulled out, so that Sensor Girl's illusory power could take total control…

…and, after Ferro Lad willed himself into living iron, the permanently masked superhero sent himself, via flight ring, headlong into the momentarily mentally overwhelmed Composite Superman not battling Mon-El and the Man of Steel at street level…

…causing said Superman-fighting and Mon-El battling Composite Supermen to suddenly streak skyward in order to direct renewed rage toward those Legionnaires currently conducting their massed aerial super-assault…

"You will all die!" screamed a half-cowled madman commanding all they had in singular super-powers as well as Mon-El's yellow sun-supplied strength and much, much more.

"Now, Batman!" Superman said somewhat loudly via the link established by the in-ear Comm-device previously supplied by the Cowled One.

No sooner did the Batman knowingly reply via Superman's smallish in-ear communications device, saying simply, "On my way", than the Man of Steel gave a get-ready nod to Element Lad, who had been the only Legionnaire not attacking Composite Superman during those last tense minutes.

Exactly as it seemed the half-Superman/half-Batman was on the verge of vanquishing all the other Legionnaires via the unleashing of virtually all his Legionnaire-like abilities, Composite Superman's super-hearing heard a strangely familiar roar on rapid approach.

A singular sound that was sorely out-of-place for this particular time-reality.

With a super-fast/super-strong spiraling out exertion of Mon-El-mimicked super-powers after the unified utilization of all other Legionnaire-acquired abilities, Composite Superman almost instantly relieved himself of the potential threat presented by such super-powered, flight ring-flying assailants to land and look toward the thunderously arriving turbo-engine street vehicle at this site of recent super-battle…

"Batman," grinned the half-cowled, green-skinned countenance of the half-and-half super-villain even as the obsidian, even in daylight!, Batmobile rumbled to an swift tire-screeching stop. "Just when I thought the triumph in my here-and-now was doomed to boredom…the Caped Crusader has come to play. Heh, heh, heheheh."

Superman stepped to the side, along with Mon-El, both secretly sighing in subconscious assuagement inevitably revolving around the playing of this wild card from a neighboring time-reality. All while allowing anguished super-muscles to finally relax so the sensations of palpable pain and definite fatigue could swiftly dissipate inside two equally invulnerable bodies. One in blue-red and the other in mostly all-red, save for a true-blue hero-type cape.

Having already brought the bombastic Batmobile to a screeching, skidding-sideways stop some six hundred meters from where stood Composite Superman…

"You've proven what a tough guy you are with these Legionnaires, Composite Superman…but are you capable of defeating the only person responsible for defeating you the first time?" snarled the Dark Knight after swiftly leaping out of his unique, in two time-realities, car's cockpit-type super high-tech section to stand so heroically before a multi-super personage.

Having long since landed, not to mention continuing as a single, as opposed to triple, individual, the half-and-half super-villain said with a sadistic sneer, "You just don't know how badly I've looked forward to this, Batman. But, before we do fight…remove your Bat-belt! My X-ray vision has already warned me that you're carrying that lead compartment behind your caped back. Weaken me once, Batman, shame on me, weaken me twice…"

Without hesitation, Batman thumbed in the secretive code that caused the Bat-belt's buckle to release, then held the yellow belt dangling down next to his right side for several seconds, before dropping it to clatter onto the street's surface roughly a meter from both Bat-booted feet.

"Ready when you are," taunted the Caped Crimefighter after promptly taking up a typical hand-to-hand battle stance seen numerous times in Karate-type tournaments throughout his own, and Superman's, time-reality. "If you're brave enough to fight me on my level, C.S."

With a chuckle, Composite Superman thought to himself, C.S.? How quaint.

"Very well, Batman," began the half-and-half super-villain even as he, too, took up a typical, in both time-realities, hand-to-hand battle stance. "Drawing upon the multi-planetary martial arts skills of Karate Kid to beat you down."

Hearing his name, Karate Kid, hovering steadily alongside the rest of his fellow Legionnaires, couldn't help but tense at the notion of this half-Superman/half-Batman and all Legionnaire-powered person using his non-super capabilities against the legendary, in that other time-reality, non-super hero.

Still, as fully knowledgeable about Superman and Brainiac-5's earlier expressed plan as the rest of the flight-ring floating super-team, he relied upon the emotional control teachings of his multi-world martial arts training in order to hover…and hope.

"I don't need super-powers to beat the Batman," Composite Superman added sarcastically, even as the two drew ever nearer. "No super-strength. No lightning bolts. Nothing but good old-fashioned martial arts action derived from more worlds than your own universal existence."

"Is talking me to death part of those otherworldly martial arts techniques, C.S.?" snidely scoffed the cowl-and-caped crimefighting colleague, in his reality, of Superman, still standing aside with Mon-El as both, along with Brainiac-5, who'd just then landed via flight ring to stand with them, desperately hoped their plan, which prompted Superman's trans-time trip back to Gotham City, would, indeed, end in success over Xan.

"The only 'talking' I'll do when I'm finished defeating you on your own non-super playing field," snarled a singularly overconfident Composite Superman as both stood cowled head to half-cowled head striking distance from one another, "shall be to deliver a eulogy over your broken body."

"Bring it," Batman defiantly as well as deviously half-grinned in practiced reply.

And so the two caped opponents commenced Karate-type strikes and counters that made the Man of Steel truly proud of the Dark Knight's never-say-die determination when facing someone he knew to be utterly invulnerable to any and all physical harm. While still having to stand his ground after receiving non-super, on purpose, punches and kicks from the half-and-half super-villain relying only on Karate Kid's multi-combative capabilities.

Some small part of the Last Son of Krypton wanted so much to super-run toward these two and stop the non-super fight, but he knew that, if the plan were to work at all, none could interfere.

No matter what.

His super-fists tightening at his sides, Superman silently encouraged, Come on, Bruce. Just hang in there a few minutes more. Just long enough to be absolutely certain Composite Superman's attention is totally directed at you and this hand-to-hand fight. Then…

"You can't hope to top Karate Kid's super-cultural knowledge of untold millennia of martial arts with what little you came to comprehend on only a single planet, Batman," sniggered Composite Superman in a somniferous whisper close to the tightly held, fully cowled face down to the street's spotless surface, Dark Knight Detective. "Surrender now…and I promise to only break one arm. Heh, heh, heh, heheheh."

Nodding in the direction of the still, via flight ring, hovering gray-and-white costumed, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Periodic Table-controlling Element Lad…

…who, in turn, nodded in the direction of the also still flight ring hovering masked Legionnaire, Ferro Lad…

…even as the Batman, still held cowl-covered face firmly against the street, felt the muscles of his right arm, being expertly twisted without using super-strength by Composite Superman, essentially start to become agonizingly mangled, while still resisting those last syrupy seconds necessary until…

"And now, Batman," began a grinning green-skinned half-Superman/half-Batman, still straddling the indigo-colored caped back of the cowl-down Dark Knight, "it's time to teach you a very valuable lesson. Hope you can write left-handed. Heh, heh, hehheheh."

"Heads up, Composite Superman!" teasingly shouted Brainiac-5, even as the half-and-half super-villain looked up to see the simplistic-yet-ingenious counter-action for which the Batman had, to put it in mostly colloquial terminology, acted as flesh-and-blood decoy.

"No," said Composite Superman to himself in the microsecond immediately preceding the double-fisted downward strike of a living iron superhero having been elementally altered, via a fellow Legionnaire, into living lead.

Once again having reverted to Xan due to lead-induced unconsciousness, the colorless-skinned, orange-haired alien with singular understanding of precisely how one could become a Composite Superman, was securely held behind ultra-strong sets of force fields via the Science Police, even as the Batman stood with Superman in the elaborate living room located within the much-more-complex-than-the Batcave HQ for the Legion of Super-Heroes.

"We can't adequately relate how much we appreciate your help in this, Batman," Brainiac-5 said with a seldom seen green-skinned smile to the cowl-and-caped crimefighter currently nursing a sore, but not broken, right arm. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to visit our hospital facilities in order to significantly speed up the healing of your…?"

"No, thank you, Brainiac-5," swiftly stated an always self-sufficient superhero without super-powers, even as pulsating pain continued to tug at his forethought. "I'd just like to get back to my own time and, uh, pursue some personal interests."

"If you should ever desire to relocate to our reality, Batman," said a gregariously grinning Lightning Lad, co-founder of the United Planets' Legion of Super-Heroes, "I'm sure Superman would be more than willing to..."

"Again, thanks, Lightning Lad," reiterated a recalcitrant Caped Crusader, his half-exposed square-jawed countenance slightly half-smiling. "But I much prefer my Batcave…even if my supercomputers can't compare with a 31st Century PDA. But, should you ever need my help again, don't hesitate to trans-time call my blue-red friend."

With that, having bid heartfelt farewells, Superman swiftly streaked off with Batman in order to, after the Dark Knight reentered the Batmobile's self-protected cockpit section, return it and them to their slightly less-perfect time-reality…

"I wonder what Batman would've said had he known about this reality's Bruce Wayne?" rhetorically asked Saturn Girl with a growing grin.

After flashing back to cerebral-located historical files, within the supercomputer-like mind of the blonde-haired, green-skinned Brainiac-5, regarding a 20th Century, their Twentieth, Bruce Wayne growing up with parents who were never victims of an armed robbery gone bad. Recalling a Bruce Wayne without the obsessive-compulsive desire to dress up in a bat-like costume in order to offer opposition to super-criminals and criminals alike in their 20th Century Gotham City. A Bruce Wayne who happily took control of Wayne Enterprises after his father, Dr. Thomas Wayne, retired and to whom Bruce married a certain dark-haired, dark-eyed beauty who'd never felt compelled to don a skintight black leather costume and identity-concealing mask.

Ms. Selina Kyle became Mrs. Selina Wayne in this separate reality where fairy-tale endings did come true.

But then, what kind of reality could it truly be without the likes of Batman and Catwoman?

END


End file.
